Sadly, our breeding of Evie to Abe did not result in any puppies. 🙁 We will try again when Evie comes into season next, which we expect to be sometime in July 2009. There is a very slight – say 1% – chance that she’s just carrying a single puppy, but at this point we don’t think that’s likely. Her half-sister, Xena, was in the same circumstance, but was gaining weight and thickening around her middle, and Evie hasn’t done that yet. We’ll keep tabs on her through her due date, of course, but at this point we’re calling it a miss.

Stay tuned for news on a summer litter!

When it rains it pours!  Not only have we bred Evie to Abe, we are also breeding Emma to Harley (Faerdorn Dust Buster, Imp UK).  Emma is in Massachusetts as I type this, waiting for the right time to be bred (based on progesterone testing to pinpoint ovulation); we actually tried breeding Emma to Harley in April and missed her, so we’re not taking any chances this time! It is possible that we’ve completely lost our minds, as these litters (should both bitches conceive – knock wood!) will be born only a few weeks apart. However, after some long thought, we decided it would be better to have two litters together and get it all over with at once! Plus, Emma and Evie were pretty much raised together, so there’s a kind of poetic justice in their having their first litters together, too.

This will be a full-UK breeding. While our primary intention with the addition of Emma to our breeding program was to blend the UK lines with the North American lines, we wanted to do a full UK breeding for Emma’s first litter, primarily because we are hoping for a full-UK male of our own. Harley has been a favorite of ours since he first came to this country – in large part due to his being the grandson of one of our all-time favorite bitches (as we’ve noted many times on this site!), Ch. Roamaro’s Scotch Mist of Winuwuk. Harley’s pedigree includes many of the UK Boxer greats, and he has impressive longevity behind him. Emma also has some top (and long-lived) dogs in her pedigree, and we’re hoping that the combination will bring out the best of all of them.

Emma has done reasonably well in the show ring, considering her uncropped ears, "British" look, limited showing, and being primarily owner-handled. We never expected her to excel in the ring, of course, because of these reasons; the ears alone make it a hard road, and being "different" is never easy. (Though really, there are only a few times where we’ve felt the ears have had anything to do with her placement.) She is smaller than most bitches in the ring, and could use just a touch more elegance. She is square, substantial, well-angled, has a gorgeous melting expression, upswept chin, nice tight feet, good width and depth of muzzle, and a beautiful golden-red coat and inky-black mask. Harley is a square, balanced, moderate dog, who has been producing typey puppies with a proper balance of substance and elegance, and fun-loving, easy-going temperaments about which everyone raves. (I administrate an online Boxer forum, BoxerCrazy, and we have a number of Harleypup owners there, so I’m able to get some unsolicited views of what he’s producing.)

Emma and Harley have both had multiple Dopplers, Holters, and thyroid screens (Harley’s results are posted on his web page), and are currently clear of Aortic Stenosis, ARVC, and hypothyroidism. Both of Emma’s Holters (10/07 and 10/08) have shown 0 VPCs. Like Evie, Emma came into season earlier than we expected and so her hips have not been x-rayed; Harley has an OFA preliminary x-ray of Good. Again, for the same reasons as with Evie’s litter, we feel there is a very very low risk that these puppies will develop clinical hip dysplasia. Emma has tested as At Risk for Degenerative Myelopathy; this was in the "news that rocked the world" category, as until her test results came back it was widely believed that they didn’t have DM in Boxers in the UK. Of course, that may still be true – At Risk simply means Emma has two copies of the gene that is linked with DM, it does not mean she will ever develop the condition. If reports from the UK are correct and they do not have DM in their Boxers – and that information comes directly from the Breed Council geneticist, based on his experiences and conversations with veterinary neurologists (and given that Boxers in the UK routinely live into their teens, odds are they would be seeing DM if it were there), we don’t expect Emma will ever show signs of the condition, and thus will be treating her breeding choices just as we would have before the test was available – acknowledging that there is a possibility of producing puppies with DM, and relying on pedigree and ancestry to determine the relative risk of doing so. Fortunately, Harley tested clear of the DM gene, which means that these puppies will all be carriers – they will never develop the condition, but may produce puppies at risk for it, depending on how (if) they are bred. (Our DM page gives more information on what the various results mean, and how we know what the puppies’ status will be.) We do not plan on testing the puppies for DM, since their status is established by their parentage – but we may do some double checking just for "quality control" assurances.

At long last, we’re planning a litter here at Newcastle.  Evie has been bred to Abe, Ch. Weston’s Cry for Freedom. We had one breeding, on November 25, with a half-hour tie; progesterone testing indicated Evie ovulated that morning, so the one breeding should have been all that was necessary. We should know just before Christmas if the breeding took, and then we can start planning for puppies.   If it took, Evie has just started her third week of pregnancy (knock wood!) and so far we haven’t noticed any changes (nor, really, would we expect to have).  This is the week the embryos implant in the uterus, but that doesn’t typically correlate to any outward signs in the bitch.  Morning sickness is a possibility in the third week, but we would be quite surprised if Evie missed a meal!

A little background on this breeding; Evie of course is our Hugo daughter. We’d always planned on having a Hugo son at some point; when we lost Hugo so tragically a couple of years ago, we had to revise our plans, and now are hoping for a Hugo grandson. For Evie’s first breeding, we wanted to stay with the Cameliard lines, both to give us a solid base for moving forward and to see if Evie produced true to expectations. We looked at several dogs, and almost went with one of Hugo’s half-brothers, but in the end we felt that Abe was a better fit for Evie. This is a linebreeding – Evie’s maternal granddam is the littermate to Abe’s dam – for our intents and purposes on Hugo’s sire, Sunny (Ch. Cameliard’s Tribute to Starjax), who appears on three sides of the pedigree and whose littermate sister appears on the fourth side.

Evie is a nice bitch who honestly by all rights should be doing better in the show ring; she’s got the attention span of a gnat, though, which doesn’t do her any favors! (If you’ve ever seen the Happy Cows Finish Line commercial – well, that’s Evie. We love her dearly, but she is easily distracted.) She’s got a long elegant neck, good topline, nice tight feet, balanced angulation, moves like a dream, dark eyes and a pretty expression. She could use a bit more turn-up and width of lower bite (it’s straight, but a bit narrow), more forechest, a bit of smoothness in the neck-to-shoulder transition, and some depth of muzzle. She’s got a fun temperament but is a bit over the top at times (typical of many Boxers we know!). Abe has everything Evie has, as well as a good solid front, bone, depth and width of muzzle, and a solid, moderate temperament; more importantly, he’s passed those traits on to his offspring. (For a long time we considered Abe’s son, Cruise (Ch. Cameliard’s Cruise Control), but as the adage goes, “If you like the son, breed to the sire”, so we did!)

Both Evie and Abe have been Dopplered clear of Aortic Stenosis, and Holtered multiple times. Abe’s Holters have all been well within normal limits; I believe his highest was 12 VPCs in 24 hours. Evie’s first Holter (10/07) showed 116 single VPCs, which is just into a grey area; however the vast majority (99) were within the first few hours of wearing the monitor. After discussion with our cardiologist, based on his review of the reading, his knowledge of her heart from prior exams, and the history of her relatives, it was surmised that most of the abnormal beats were either artifact or caused by the stress of wearing the monitor (we also tried a different hookup method, which may have increased susceptibility to artifact). Evie’s second Holter (10/08) showed only two single VPCs – well within normal limits. We have not had Evie’s hips tested, for a variety of reasons, the main one being we procrastinated and she came into season two months earlier than we expected! Given the history of the line and the lack of any known diagnosis of HD, and the low incidence of HD in Boxers in general, we feel there is a very very low risk that these puppies will develop clinical hip dysplasia. Evie was tested for thyroid function in October 2008 and everything was normal. Evie has been DNA tested as a carrier for DM; Abe’s results are not back yet but we know he is at worst a carrier, because he has produced clear offspring. (Our DM Page explains how we can know this, as well as what the results mean and other information about degenerative myelopathy in Boxers.) The puppies will be tested for DM status before being placed in their new homes.